Developer: Tindalos Interactive
Publisher: Focus Entertainment
Release Date: 20th June 2023
Platforms: PC, PlayStation & Xbox
Reviewed on: PC
As the mountain of new games continues halfway into 2023, I’ve dived into a game based on one of my favourite franchises (it is my favourite, if I’m honest).
Released on the 20th of June for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S, Aliens Dark Descent is a real-time strategy video game played from a top-down perspective. Games like this are mostly….alien to me, apologies…But given my love for the franchise’s history, I was happy to try it. In short, you control a team of colonial marines battling against alien and human enemies, completing primary and secondary objectives in a collection of missions. During each mission, you’ll explore the map, rescue survivors, take down enemies and collect ammo and materials.
All of the above sounds familiar fare for many games; even the game’s story will be an extremely standard set-up for anyone who knows the movies. Mysterious cargo hosts the Xenomorph, it gets released when it shouldn’t, and chaos ensues. I’ve broken that down to its most essential points, and as you progress, it’s got a lot more to it than that, but it’s not something to shake up the roots of the movies, books or comics.
Going back to my earlier point, I love Alien and all of the movies and books (as a side point, I’d highly recommend the audiobooks available on Audible), and yes, that even extends to Alien Resurrection. I do, however, draw the line at the game Alien Colonial Marines. That’s a game that should have been amazing but failed so badly that I still can’t believe it. Alien has some great games in its history, including the Alien Trilogy, Aliens VS Predator (2010) and Alien: Isolation. Happily, on this occasion, Dark Descent finds itself on that list of great games, and it’s also one of the best games I’ve played in 2023.
Alien: Isolation caught a lot of people off guard, especially coming after the last poor game in Colonial Marines. It took the story way back to the horror origins of the original movie, and here Dark Descent does the same but emotes strong feelings of James Cameron’s movie Aliens. For all of Isolation’s horror and suspense vibes, this is much more about feeling like your back is up against the wall against odds that you’re unlikely to succeed against.
The game’s story is set 19 years after the original trilogy of movies and focuses on two main characters, Maeko Hayes and Sgt. Jonas Harper. Both have their sides to the story, and it’s an interesting take as neither are the main playable characters of the game. Although I’ll keep this as spoiler free as possible, both characters get involved in their sides of the story. It’s a story of growth (for Hayes) and possible redemption for Harper as he reconnects with his lost daughter. Overall, I enjoyed the story, and I’ll leave the finer details out for those who hope to play the game later.
Cut scenes between missions are passable, giving the game the story it needs to move along, but it won’t win any Oscars for the storyline or acting. I enjoyed it, but I’m an extreme fan of the series, so this might not be for everyone.
The gameplay is challenging and addictive; at each mission start, you’ll pick a team of 4 marines, which later increases to 5 and select weapon and gear load outs. It’s essential to make good choices on this, and having a varied selection of marines will help you as you progress. You can also customise your team in appearance and name; for those who follow the Pure Dead Gaming Discord, this is where the mighty Soop Squad was born, a collection of some wonderful reprobates I’ve been lucky enough to become friends with online. You can even customise the look of your marines to make each member stand out and be distinct.
From here, you’ll pick your mission and starting point in the level; this becomes more important if you go back to a mission later to mop up secondary objectives as you can drop in closer to what you need to find. When you start a mission, your map will only highlight specific areas as you first need to explore to be able to see every room and corridor on it. Having as much detail as possible on the map makes it easier to get about and also to get out quickly, which you’ll need to do a lot.
It’s not a turn-based RTS, but you can enable slow down in the options to allow you more time to issue commands to your time. Dark Descent is a game that will really get your brain thinking; as you explore the mission maps, you can weld specific doors to slow down enemies on the chase, but bear in mind this will also mean you’ll need to break the weld if you try and escape the same way. As you progress, you can use this to your advantage to direct the Xenomorphs and human enemies into traps and ambushes.
Objectives are straightforward: search for a door key or object and then unlock a new area or computer workstation. I did, however, get lost a few times with the objectives that ask you to search an area to find something rather than give you a fixed point to find on the map. This is likely my issue rather than something everyone will struggle with, but worth mentioning in case.
Where people will struggle is in the battle with the aliens. My advice is don’t be afraid to break the game up and complete objectives one at a time. You can return to your APC to lift your squad and return to the main spaceship, the Otago, to allow your team to recover and rest. This can be key in managing your squad’s health and well-being, as you’ll need to manage health, stress, and traumas. When you’re out exploring, you must ensure your marines are feeling good. If they’re stressed, you can head to a shelter with a greenhouse icon on the map. Once you’re inside, your team can weld the doors shut and take a little break. This will reduce their stress level by 100%, which will stick around even after they leave.
In general, avoid combat where possible; stealth is your friend and helps you save ammo and squad health for when you need it. If you start firing and get detected by the aliens, the whole pack will come after you, and they are aggressive. The longer the hunt goes on, the more aggressive the aliens will get. You can easily get trapped and start losing members of your squad (by the end of my play-through, some of my team were on their fourth or fifth iteration); although you’ll have health packs to restore health, be prepared to lose members of your team or at very least a few limbs on the way home. If you lose any of your squad, you’ll have new recruits back on the Otago, but you’ll need to train them and boost their skills to get them ready for the fight.
As I mentioned earlier, resource management is critical, as later on in missions, you’ll reach boss enemies, which take a lot to bring down. You know a game isn’t messing about when you get a warning screen advising you to turn back if your squad are not fully prepared for the upcoming enemy. These battles get wild, and you’ll need to use every ability and bullet available to get past them. I enjoyed them, but it wasn’t till later in the game that I was fully prepared for the challenge and had the thinking required to get by. Get as many turrets on the go as possible, then unleash hell on some impressive alien variants and Queens.
Your squad all have classes, and each class has different upgrades and weapons that can be used. I was a massive fan of the Smart Rifle made famous in Aliens, but I must highlight one of the few flaws I found in the game: the classic Pulse Rifle sound. It sounds ok, but it’s not the movie’s iconic sound. There has been a bit of fan feedback on this online, and I’d like to see this updated officially by the developers, but I’m sure the Mod community will be hard at work to fix it if they don’t.
Playing on PC, performance has been excellent; over my 20 hours with the game, I’ve got an average of 121 fps on epic settings (playing a mixture of 3440 by 1440 and 4K). The game did crash once, but it was after a particular massive firefight, and the amount of alien bodies and bullets on screen might have been just a bit much than it could handle. There was a slight fps drop after some cut scenes as the game moved back to gameplay, but this was not major and never lasted longer than a second or two. It’s by no means the best-looking game of 2023, but if it feels and looks like Ailen, that’s all that really matters.
I’ve noted in other reviews people have had more in-game issues, like missions bugging out and poorly synced dialogue. This didn’t happen to me, so it may be a console issue. So be warned; you might need to restart a few missions or levels.
Aliens Dark Descent is currently my favourite game of 2023, which is a massive surprise as it’s one of the most challenging games I’ve played in ages. That’s not usually my style of game. It has exceptionally well-realised game mechanics paired with challenging difficulty, all wrapped up in an engaging little story that adds to the ever-increasing lore of the Alien franchise. If you get the chance, please try this game but be warned, be prepared for pain!
-BigGP
